A New Uprising: The Child of Prophecy
by supersassysnakeatingbadger
Summary: Set after "A New Uprising." This story follows the lives of Will Solace and Nico Di Angelo, and their endeavours to start their family, despite the notoriety of being brought back from the dead.
1. Disclaimer and Author's Note

**Hi! Just a warning! This story is based upon a previous fanfiction which I wrote with my friend - excusemewhileiasdfghjkl**

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HoO, Uncle Rick does. I only own these ideas and any OCs

So for anyone who wants to read this, go ahead and read our previous story: s/12892420, it's called The New Uprising.

For this story, I'll be posting every 4 days, so please review! I think that's all, now on with the story!

 **Love y'all, supersassysnakeeatingbadger**


	2. 1: Will

Being alive was weird, especially after being dead. I didn't completely remember dying or being brought back, although who would want to remember being stabbed to death? But I did feel happy, like 'no care in the world' happy. Almost as soon as I came back, I was back in the infirmary. And it hurt. Each time that I healed someone, it felt like their malady had been transferred to me. My calf felt as if someone had made noodles out of its muscle. I had migraines that made me want to throw up and Nico wasn't here with me; he said that he wouldn't be any help at all, being in a healing place. He was back at our apartment, checking through the last little bit of paperwork. We'd be catching a lift with Argus into Midtown to the adoption agency there. Gods, it was exciting, the thought that soon we'd have a little baby to look after. Although Nico said that it would make us stand out even more: a young gay couple, with one of the partners being undead, and with a little kid.

I was losing focus, as I had been doing more and more so in the past week.

"Ok. Now, Jacinta, that nectar should help take some pain away, but you really shouldn't take your sling off just because you want to win capture the flag. You wouldn't want it to get worse, and end up with a crooked arm forever."

She drank her nectar as I retied the sling for her broken arm. My watch beeped at me, telling me that it was time to go to the Big House. I nodded a quick goodbye at Brandy, who gave me a quick half-smile, busy wrapping some bandages. I still hadn't got used to it; that people starting to avoid me bit.

I strolled out of the infirmary, stethoscope hanging around my neck. I got to the veranda of the Big House and opened the door to go inside. Walking through the house, I headed for the study, where Chiron would most likely be. I knocked on the doorframe, and entered, surprised to see Nico sitting across from him. Shouldn't he be teaching sword-fighting or something?

"Ah, Will. There you are, my boy. Come and take a seat. I have some rather pressing matters that I would like to talk to you about." That didn't sound good, and neither did Chiron. Ever since we had to amputate his leg after Lycaon's attack, he was stuck in the wheelchair permanently. Unable to take his centaur form, he was still adjusting, even now.

"Yeah, uh, Chiron was just telling me that some little kid, about two or three, was found in New Rome. The weird part is, the kid doesn't exist. No name, no parents, nothing. And…" He'd ended on a higher note. Nico was hiding something.

"And I think that you would perhaps adopt this child rather than one in the city. She would fit in here just perfectly." Chiron clasped his hands together as if we'd come to a unanimous decision. We hadn't. Nico and I left Chiron to feed Seymour, my footsteps heavy in my frustration.

"What do you mean, it's perfect? I thought we had a plan."

"We do, the plan was that we were going to adopt a kid. Does it matter where from?" Nico insisted, trying to push the idea forward. Feeling exasperated, I wadded up the adoption papers and threw them at him. It hit his black hoodie dead centre and fell uselessly to the floor. I yawned; the sun was going down and I needed to sleep.  
"Let's figure this out in the morning, okay? I don't feel like going to sleep being mad at you."

We made our way back to our apartment, and I changed the doctors coat and scrubs for a baggy, grey tee and flannel pants. Nico sighed and did the same. As we cuddled in bed, I slowly drifted off to sleep, still wondering about this girl in New Rome, and why Nico was so adamant that we adopted her.

I sat up and was quickly filled with dread. I was in the Underworld. Crossing my fingers, I prayed that I hadn't died. Again. My heart was beating like a wild animal trying to escape my chest, which was a sure sign that I was still alive. It was Hades' throne room, I somehow recognised. I could see Hades and Nico fighting, something that I'd never seen them do.

"Nico, let him go! You're using too much of your power…You're going to get yourself killed!" Hades was trying to pull Nico away from a body sprawled on the floor. My body. I rushed to Nico's side, my hands ghosting through his shoulder.

"Nico! Please, stop! You'll die, I can't let you die!" A lump caught in my throat; this was my resurrection. I knew what was going to happen, and I knew that Nico was still alive, so it would be okay. But it didn't feel like that. I didn't want Nico to die, especially not by saving me.

Hades' fingers passed through Neeks, just like my hands had. It was like Nico was a ghost. Oh, that couldn't be good. My heart was pounding and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. Nico was shaking like an earthquake. My fingers that attempted to curl around his cheek passed straight through him. I tried to hold him, but my arms just faded through his body. I couldn't do anything.  
"Please, Nico, stop. This is going to kill you. Just stop."  
"Nico, please. Don't do this, you have to let me go," I pleaded. I yelled louder with each cry, hoping that he could hear me.

"Never."

"Nico, stop now! This is your last chance to pull back! Nico. Nico! Let him go!" Hades voice echoed through the marble room.

Nico gritted his teeth and started to fall backwards. I sat above his head, trying to soothe him, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. Hades hung his head, and stood up tall.  
"I summon the Three Fates to return what was forcibly taken." A swirl of grey smoke that smelled of musty books and dust swept through Hades' throne room. The haze of dust settled and through it appeared three old crones, with stingy tufts of hair and teeth blotted black, orange and green. The only difference between them was that one was tall, another stumpy and the last was doubled over and had the worst hunchback I'd ever seen.  
"Hades, this is the first you have called of us in a millenia. Why would you want to bring someone back?" The tall Fate had a hoarse voice as if she had smoked one too many chimneys.  
"Atropos. My son has become infatuated with this boy, and they had planned to -"  
"Will Solace. I remember his thread. It was golden-tinged, just like his father's." Lachesis hobbled over to Hades and stood fast, expecting some kind of remark.  
"Yes. I want you to bring him back. He hadn't lived long enough, and I need at least one of my children to find happiness. Please." The Fates sighed in unison, and stood around my body. It started to emit a faint glow, which steadily grew brighter and brighter. I had to look away and blink the spots from my eyes. When I looked back, the Fates had vanished. I gazed back at my body, and smiled in relief as I realised that I knew what happened from here. Black crept at the edge of my eyes as I escaped the dream-vision.

Waking up, I could feel that the room had slightly heated. I changed into some sweatpants and shoes, grabbed Nico's hoodie from last night and left the apartment. It was nice in the morning. Barely anyone was awake so I could think without the hassle of people's lives. Outside of the Ares cabin, a boy sat, feet dangling in their tactical trenches. He was sharpening his sword, and sneered at me as I walked past. Did I do something wrong? Mood soured a bit, I ducked around the cabins, opting for the route along the trees. In the midst of the woods, some of the nymphs running around trees, chasing each other. Some of the naiads were trying to regrow some trees in the hollow of the battlefield. I kept walking, heading towards the canoe lake, my favourite spot. I could think about what Nico and I were going to do about this little girl in New Rome. I tucked my hands into the pockets, hiding them away from the cool breeze. To my surprise, my fingers clasped around a small piece of paper, and I pulled it out. Sitting down on a deserted canoe, I unfurled it. It was a photo of a little girl with curly black hair and sky blue eyes. She was giggling and holding a lollipop, seated by the fountain in the middle of New Rome. That was the little girl Nico and Chiron thought that we should adopt, and I could understand why.

She looked just like Bianca, Nico's sister.

I closed the photo back up and stuffed it in my pocket. The sun had already risen, and that meant that Nico would too. I'd made up my mind; we were going to bring her home today. I quietly opened and closed the front door behind me, and shuffled about our little house.


	3. 2: Nico

"Good morning, Sunshine! Time to get up!" Will pulled the curtains back and let sunlight stream into the room. I took his pillow, muffling my groans and shielding my eyes. I turned onto my other side, snuggling into the blankets even more.

Every. Single. Morning.  
"Whad do you wan me do do? Phodosynfesise?" He jumped on top of me, wrestling the pillow out of the way. I smiled. He was so cute. He smiled back, and I leaned in close, and kissed his cheek.  
"Ugh, you still have morning breath." Fending off my disgusting breath, Will scrambled off of the bed. He poured some coffee into his cup and mine. I slowly sat up, stretching my spine before moving from the bed to the table, slurping from my cup.  
"Have you made up your mind yet?" I hoped that he had; Chiron had shown me a photo of the little girl. She looked so much like Bianca that it wasn't funny.  
"Yeah, I think that we should go check her out first. Make sure she's...I dunno...good?"

I smiled at Will. 'Check that she was good' was a big improvement from 'yeah, no'. This was going to work out just fine. We changed into some normal clothes and headed back up to the Big House. We opened the door, walking past Percy versing Annabeth and Nisha in a pingpong game, and headed towards the study. Will cleared his throat.  
"Chiron, we've come to an agreement. We'd like to meet the little girl."  
"Marvelous, I'll send word to Reyna. We'll just get you to sign these papers, just some legal issues we have to get out of the way. And how would you be getting there?" Chiron furrowed his brows, interested in our answer as we both signed.

"We were, uh-"  
"- We're going to be shadow travelling there later this morning, and should be back in a couple of hours." I squeezed Will's hand, silently pleading with him not to say anything else. Chiron nodded and turned away. We were about to leave when someone grabbed my arm. It was Nisha. I told Will to go on and let Brandy kow that we'd be gone for a few days.

"Are you going somewhere?"  
"Yeah, why? Noticed anything strange?"  
"No, but what if something goes wrong when you're gone? What if we need you here?"  
"It's only for the day, I'm sure everything will be fine." She nodded and headed back inside. For a twelve year old, she worried about everything. But it did make sense; Leo went missing and she and him used to be practically joined at the hip. She probably thought that we were going to leave too. I shook my head and joked, "You'll be fine. It's not like the world is going to end."

I walked back to the apartment and started packing a small bag. Only the necessities. Will opened the door and came inside, a wide grin on his face. Soon, we both had our bags packed.  
"You ready for this?" I clasped his hand in mine. He nodded, and we slipped into the shadows of the underworld, quickly leaving it again.

The sun over San Francisco was blinding and I felt like I was burning just by standing outside. Holding hands, we walked through the centre of New Rome. We heard a shout behind us and turned towards it, seeing a blonde man with thin glasses, holding two ice creams.

"Will! Nico! Good to see you guys. I was just grabbing Pipes and I some ice cream. Did you want to join us back at our house?"

"Not just yet, Jason. We have to go do some things."

"Yeah, alright. Just swing by anytime, we're just going to be at home all day."

We nodded, leaving him to carry the icecreams back to his and Piper's house. Strolling down to the road from the fountain, we headed to where Reyna and Thalia lived. It was in a neat little cul-de-sac. It had a deceivingly quaint front door, just plain wood, but inside it had a sprawling layout that tended to confuse new visitors. These rooms were mostly weapons rooms; Thalia's archery equipment, a practise range in the basement, a whole collection of Reyna's swords and spears in another, and a large polishing and maintenance room out the back. Thankfully, it was the kitchen that you first walked into. On one of the island stools, a mop of curly black hair was sucking on a juice box. Will cleared his throat and looked at Reyna.

"So, is that her?"  
"Yeah, her name's Katelyn."  
"Does she go by Katie?"  
"Yeah. Thanks for taking her. She's a bit of a trouble here. Thalia had to lock Ferrum and Osmium up. They were a tad too excited to meet a toddler." Katie put the juice box on the bench, and carefully climbed down from her stool. Racing over to us, she fell face first onto Will's feet, giggling. I grinned. She was too cute. Will's hand wrapped around mine. I could tell that he loved the idea of this little joy.  
"Hey, Reyna? Did anyone know where she came from?"  
"Nah, no one does. She just kind of showed up out of the blue."  
"Well, can you give us a call if anyone finds her parents. We might take her back to camp."

I picked her up, and she started blowing raspberries on my sleeve. It was gross, but I forgave it because of the cuteness. She waved bye to Reyna and Thalia as we left, Ferrum and Osmium yipping from inside the house. It was maybe a 15 minute walk to get some ice cream, and go see Jason and Piper.

Oh, how wrong we were.

"What's your names? Are you my new daddies? Where are we going?"  
"Uh-" Will glanced at me, not sure what to say.

"I'm Nico, and that's Will. We're going to be your new dads. That is, if you'd like us to? We're going for ice cream, would you like some?"  
She nodded, "Bubblegum, pwease. Can I call you Dadda," she pointed to Will, "and Papa?" She pointed to me. Tears were welling in my eyes as I nodded, unchecked and unintentional. Today was the happiest I'd ever felt. We stopped at the ice cream shop, and I held her up to the glass to pick which cone she wanted. Chocolate and sprinkles.

"Miss Katie, whatever happened to wanting bubblegum?"

"I, I, I changed my mind." She threw her hands up in a shrug. I handed her the ice cream, which looked huge in her tiny hands. As for Will and I, we got something called a 'Hokey Pokey' (it had honeycomb in it, which Will adores) and another that tasted like salted caramel. We went and sat in the nearby park, eating our ice creams and basking in the sun. Katie sat in between Will and I, stealing licks from our ice creams and offering hers in return.

"Finished!" Katie cried, turning around, face smeared with ice cream.

"No, you're not," Will grappled her into a bear hug and wiped her face clean with a napkin, "Okay. Now you are. Are we ready to go to Jason and Piper's?"

"Who are they?"

"They're our really, really good friends. Come on, let's get going." And with that, we walked slowly to Jason and Piper's house. It was clear which one was theirs. It had a definite 'Jason and Piper' look to it, with the large open windows and the uncovered columns. I wondered if Annie had designed it.

"Hey, we're glad to see you two." Piper opened the door to welcome us in. She then realised that I had a kid in my arms. "I mean, you three. Who might this be?"

"I-I'm Katie," she giggled, pointing at herself. We stepped inside, closing the door behind us. Poor Piper looked better than she did during Lycaon's attack, but still had angry scarring across her face. Her left eye was milky white, the Lycanthrope himself leaving her blinded. I set Katie down on the ground and she raced around, stumbling and laughing. We sat down in their living room; the house was open plan, so it was the living room, dining room, and kitchen all in one space. Jason watched Katie as she ran, chuckling merrily about how happy she was.  
"So was this the thing that you had to do first?"  
"Uh, yeah. We went and picked her up from Reyna and Thalia's."  
"She's cute, what's her name?" Katie tripped, falling onto her knees on the wooden floor. Picking herself up, she exclaimed, "I'm Katie! Remember?"  
"That's right. Hi, Katie. I'm Jason and that's Piper. Where do you live, Katie?"  
"Daddy? Where do I live?" She looked up at Will, and she started to toddle towards him.  
"You live at camp with us, sweetheart. We'll head back there later this afternoon, how's that sound?"  
"Okay, Daddy," she nodded at Will and turned back to Piper, "I live at camp!"  
"I used to live at camp, I used to be a head councillor like both of your daddies."

I remembered Piper leaving. She thought that it would be easier for her and Jason to live in New Rome; she didn't want to be a burden on the Aphrodite cabin. Drew had taken back her place as head councillor.

My brain started to shift into a panicked overdrive as I realised that we'd forgotten to set up a room for Katie. I looked at Will, trying to remember if we actually had a nursery at camp or not. I didn't think so. I could hear my heartbeat in my chest, and my hands had started to freeze. What were we going to do?


	4. 3: Will

Smiles filled the room and it was beautiful. Piper and Jason sat together on their sofa, nodding at Katie who was lying under their coffee table and making up nonsense stories. Nico sat next to me on the other lounge, deep in thought. He turned to me, eyes blank. What could he be thinking about?

I smiled, feeling truly happy. I was surrounded by friends and Nico, and we had a little girl. What more could I want?  
"So, when are you thinking of heading back to camp?" Jason stood up, casually walking to their fridge for more juice for Katie.

"Maybe tonight, we've got a few more things to do in town."  
"Oh, yeah. Like what?"

"We've got to get some clothes for Katie. Don't we?" I looked at her, noticing she'd perked up when I said clothes. She was giggling and had shifted in front of Piper, who was retying her ringlets in pigtails.

After lunch with Jason and Piper, we headed back to the main street of New Rome. The white marble shop-fronts had large windows, which were occupied by miscellaneous clothes, toys, fresh groceries and furniture. Nico and I held Katie's hand, occasionally swinging her as we strolled. After each swing, she'd erupt into a fit of giggles. We were passing by a shop with purple butterflies and dragonflies painted onto the window. Katie stopped walking and let go of Nico's hand, pointing at the shop.  
"Pretty dresses!" She squealed and started jumping up and down, "Can we go see the dresses, Daddy?"

I gave Nico a questioning look. He nodded, smiling at Katie. I nodded back.

"How about we get you some nice outfits to show everyone back at camp, huh?" We opened the door and walked inside, a small bell chiming upon our entry. Inside, some girls sat behind the counter, chatting and hemming a shirt each. Katie didn't notice them, instead bouncing over to the rack of purple, blue, red and green dresses that they had.  
"Papa, I need help. I can't reach." Her hand was outstretched and grasping for the skirt of a green and blue sparkling dress. Nico complied.  
She giggled and went into a change room, and I pulled the door shut. She knocked on the door and I obliged. She stepped out of the change room, in a blue and pink flowery long-sleeved dress.  
"Whaddya think?" she twirled around in a circle, the skirt catching and spinning out slightly with her. Nico and I grinned. She was adorable.  
"Beautiful, sweetie. But, hm..." Nico tapped his chin and looked around. His eyes set upon a spinning accessory holder, and he went over, picking up a pink butterfly headband. He put it in her hair, pushing it out of her eyes, "...do you think it matches now?"  
"Yeah, Papa," she giggled and shook her head, swishing her hair around. She moved back into the stall as I picked out another outfit for her to try on. I looked back at Nico and leaned on the edge of the chair he had sat back in.  
"Since when did you know anything about fashion?"

"Since I used to watch Bianca and my mum pick outfits for each other when I was little. Bi also used to tell me everything about colours, and she usd to plait my hair when it was long."  
I was taken aback. How did I not know any of this? How did I keep forgetting that Nico had had a sister? I blushed, embarrassed about my question. Katie rushed back out to us, and jumped onto Nico's lap. It was strange. I'd never seen Nico act like this around a kid before. It was even weirder that she seemed to get along with him so much.  
"Whaddya think, Daddy?"  
"You look marvellous, darling."

It took over an hour of Katie trying on dresses and shirts and shorts and shoes before we left. We headed back to Jason and Piper's, bringing with us two very full bags of assorted clothes. It wasn't that far away from the shops, but with bags to carry and a toddler who wanted to stop and pet every puppy she saw and smell every flower, it took us roughly three quarters of an hour.  
"We're back! Is anyone home?" Nico rapped on the door frame, having dropped one of the bags.

"In the kitchen, we're just baking some stuff ." Jason's voice echoed through the doorway.

"Yeah, alright. But...umm, the door's locked."

"Oh right, I'll grab it for you. Jason, let go of me." Piper's laughter increased as she walked to the door, unlocking it and ushering us in. She had some flour on her cheek and some pink frosting in her bun. We followed her back into the centre of the house for the second time today. Jason was standing behind the breakfast bar and had some blue frosting on his chin and pink dye on his hands.

"Ah, I see someone's been shopping."

"Uh huh, Daddy and Papa and I got me some pretty dresses. "

"That's nice, maybe later we should throw a little fashion parade so that Jason and I can see your pretty new dresses."

Nico looked over at Jason and nodded at the door to where they presumably had their guestrooms. Jason glanced from Nico to Katie and gave him a thumbs up. Katie started yawning, solidifying our belief that it was nap time.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's go have a nap. You can have your fashion parade when you wake up."

Nico stretched out his hand and started walking her to the room. "I like my dresses."

I felt really awkward, just standing in the hallway with a bag of clothing. Jason was whipping the last of the icing, adding the last few drops of blue and pink. I watched his hands, and their methodical movements, in a trance.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Hot!" Piper was yelping as she overturned a tray of chocolate, or somewhat burnt vanilla, cupcakes. She then dropped the tray in the sink, the dishwater hissing against the metal. Jason put down his icing spatula and wrapped her thumb in a dishcloth. Pushing the icing to the side, he bounced her up onto the counter, removing the cloth.

"Oh no. What happened? Do you want me to kiss it better?" He teased her, raising it to his lips and kissing it until she was laughing. They were really cute together, but I still felt like I was intruding. They were more Nico's friends than mine.

After clearing my throat slightly, they looked up and realised that they weren't alone. Piper then slowly jumped down onto the floor, and grimaced. She cupped her face, and whispered something to Jason, who nodded.

"Hey, do you think you could help me apply some more salve on my face? Jason reckons I don't get the right amount. Otherwise I might be stuck looking like this forever," Piper tried to joke, but it came out sad and pessimistic. I set the clothing bag down beside the kitchen table and followed her into their master bedroom.

It was stunning, They must have had this house already set up before they stopped living at camp, because there was no way in Hades that it was pulled together so quickly. It was clean and light; an acacia bed frame, with blue and white meadows decorating the duvet. Some wicker chairs, covered in blue blankets and pillows, adorned the large full-length window in front of the bed. I followed her further in to the heart of the room; the ensuite was just as clean. The marble vanity held the bare minimum, toothbrushes and toothpaste, a hairbrush covered in elastics and a jar of healing salve. She opened the jar, a harsh scent of tea-tree and eucalyptus emanating from it. Gliding her fingers across it, a slight layer came away along with them. Piper winced each time she smoothed it into the wounds, I could tell she wasn't eager about it.

"How's it feel? Do you think it's getting better?"

"It annoys me more than anything else; it itches, and it burns and sometimes I just want to keep ice on it all day."

"Would you like me to try and take some of the pain away?"

"If you want to, you don't have to though. I was just really giving Jason time to finished icing the cupcakes for Katie, Nico and you."

"Well, I'm sure that this can give him a bit more time. I just want to warn you though, I won't be able to heal the scarring. It's far too extreme, plus I'd need the proper equipment." She nodded. I rubbed my hands together, trying to heat them up slightly, before resting them on her cheeks. They glowed slightly, a small pocket of golden light spilling from under my fingers. I could feel a slight itch on my eyebrow, and felt something like a bad sunburn across my cheek. Letting go of her. Piper smiled. Let's just hope that it worked.

Finished with that, we walked back out to the main room to wait for Katie to wake up from her nap and have some Jason specialty-decorated cupcakes.


	5. 4: Nico

Katie turned over again. She seemed to do that a lot while sleeping. I lay beside her on the bed, occasionally twisting my ring. It was the same skull one that I'd worn when I was younger. What was I supposed to do now? I dug a hand in my pocket, and pulled out a couple drachmas and several denarii. I could go and Iris-Message Chiron and let him know that we'd be back soon. It was still light out, so I probably could. Hopefully he wasn't too busy. I nodded to myself; that's what I would do. I eased off the bed so as not to awake Katie, and headed into the ensuite, pleased to find a window facing the sun. Adjusting the shower head and removing it from the wall, I turned it on. A fine mist spritzed the window, as a small rainbow glimmered on it. There the rainbow was, so I threw the drachma into it.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering." And with that the drachma disappeared, so I finished opening the message with the person and place, "Chiron, Camp Half-Blood."

This was exciting. I was grinning ear to ear, and could see it appear in the mirror. It was nerve-wracking too. We weren't prepared to raise a kid. What were they supposed to eat? What if she got injured? Well, she'd be alright if she got injured, she'd have Will as her dad. I kept thinking. Will would still be working in the infirmary. That meant that I'd be the one with her majority of the time, what if she then realised that she didn't like me? Just as my smile dropped, the Iris-Message connected. Chiron's bearded face sprung to life before me, and he looked up, slightly startled. He was in his study again, I could tell by the snarling Seymour in the background.

"Good Heavens! How are you, Nico, my boy?"

"Fine, Chiron. Fine."

"Have you and Will picked up the child?" He leafed through some papers on his desk, "Katelyn, was it? And how is she?"

"Yes, Chiron, we've got her and she's fi-"

"- Vince, not now, the counsellor's meeting is at 3 o'clock. Yes, that's in two hours."

"We're just at Jason and Piper's right now, but we should be back later this afternoon."

"Well, okay. Do say hello to them for me, and don't feel that you have to rush back. We will see you soon."

And with that, he sliced through the image, cutting the connection. I headed back into the room, only a little surprised that Katie had managed to turn herself upside down on the bed. It was hilarious how much she acted like Will already, even though they weren't blood-related.

Hm, what was I supposed to do now? I imagined that Katie would be out for another half an hour at least, so I headed back into the kitchen, surprised to see only Jason. He was still covered in icing, and had started scraping a bowl full of pink marshmallow goop into a piping bag.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"You and Pipes seem really happy. I'm glad for you."

"You and Will look really happy too. You'll make great parents. And Pipes and I are here if you ever need a couple of babysitters, okay?"

"We'll remember that. Nearly everyone we know has said that: Hazel, Percy and Annabeth, even Clarisse. I think she misses having Hedge's son to play with. And the whole Aphrodite cabin. They seem more eager to look after Katie than we do!"

"Huh, you guys must really like it at camp. I'm surprised that you didn't move to New Rome like we did. "

"Nah, Will's the main medic back at camp. And it does seem a bit more laidback than here."

"Mm, I can understand that. So how is everyone at camp? I know it's only been, what, a couple weeks. "

"It's alright, we've still got a lot to fix back up, and it' definitely been gloomier and quieter than usual."

Jason nodded, twisting the piping bag, a small blob of marshmallow dropping onto the first cupcake. Slowly he spread it out with a butterknife, and cleaned the edges. He picked it up and presented it to me.

"Cupcake?"

"Sure," I said questionably. I didn't think Jason would've been the baking type. But then again, it was Jason.

"Piper's been trying to teach me how to make the little flowers and stuff, but it gets really hard because you have to have a tonne of focus. Which is something that neither of us have."

"Yeah, ADHD sucks sometimes."

We just kind of stood there for a bit, me eating the cupcake which was great. It was soft and fluffy and tasted a bit like strawberries. And Jason worked on marshmallowing the rest of the cupcakes. Once he'd done the pink, he set the piping bag in the sink, and got out a sandwich bag. Placing it in a cup, and folding the edges down around the rim, he filled it with the blue icing. Once it had been filed, he twisted the top closed and sniped a tiny hole in the corner.

"Are you sure everything's okay?" He asked, putting down the icing, "There haven't been any problems?"

The jeers, hostile looks and petty jokes flashed in front of my eyes. There was no need to worry Jason with those. He had enough to deal with. But he had noticed something on my face and narrowed his eyes.

"Neeks, what are you not telling me?"

"Its nothing."

"Why do I get the feeling you're lying?"

"It's just people at camp, it's nothing really."

"Neeks, that's bull and we both know it. Come on, you can tell me."

"It's just not everyone thinks that I should have brought Will back, or that I should have tried to bring others back. I tried to explain to them that I physically couldn't bring anyone else back, and they called me selfish, to just save my, uh, boyfriend."

"What do they do?"

Jason's voice was quiet, but held bridled anger.

"Just little things, I'm serious. Walk on the other side of the pavilion to avoid me. Leave little notes about the people they've lost where they know I will find them. They call Will zombie-boy when they think we can't hear them."

I could see sparks of electricity in his eyes, he was trying to straddle his anger. I set down the cupcake, and raised my hands in defeat.

"It's not a big deal, for me at least. I'm used to it. But, it's been a bit hard on Will, These are the people he's meant to help, and they just kinda ignore him, or show barely any gratitude. He tries to act like no big deal, but I can tell that is is."

Jason nodded, the sparks fading from his eyes. His mouth formed into a tight-lipped grimace.

"I'm sorry, Neeks. That sucks. People can be real jerks."

"Mm, yeah."

"I'm sorry. You guys could probably move over here. I don't think they'd be so rude here."  
"We'd love to, but Will is attached to that infirmary."  
"Well, the offer is always open."

Piper came through the hallway, followed closely by Will. She had a slightly red sheen on her face, no doubt lotion for her scars. Will looked around the room, raising on the tips of his sneakers and craned his neck to see if Katie was behind the counter. When he didn't spot her, he mouthed at me, still asleep? I nodded. His face washed with relief, and he glanced at the cupcakes.

"What're you planning to do with those cupcakes?"

"Nico has part of one there that you could try, let me just," Piper had returned to her place behind the counter, a hand slung around Jason's middle and other hand counting the cupcakes, "What do you know, we have some more leftovers. Try one."

Will thanked her as he took it and bit in to it, murmuring about how good it was. Jason had picked his blue icing back up and was concentrating hard on writing letters on the remaining cupcakes.

"So what is with the cupcakes? Do you usually make them or-"

"Oh, no, not really. It was meant to be a surprise, we didn't think you guys would be back until later, but anyway... " She stopped, eyes straining towards the hallway. "Since she's asleep, we're making 'welcome to the family' cupcakes for Katie. Do you think she will like them?"

"Aw, that's really nice and thoughtful, and I am sure that she'll love it," Will smiled, trying to warm the room with it.

"Yeah, but the thing is, would you guys happen to know when you have to head back to camp?"

"Uh," Will glanced at me.

"We had a counsellor's meeting at 3, but since we missed that, we'll leave at 5, so that we could just sneak back in. No need to keep everyone else awake."

"Papa? Papa? Daddy?" Crap. I jumped from the chair and headed straight to her. She looked very dishevelled; one of her pigtails had come undone and she had a red patch on her face from where she'd been sleeping on it.

"It's okay, I'm right here."  
They hadn't finished decorating the cakes. I had to stall her. That wouldn't be too hard. She was like, 2.  
"Would you like to get changed into one of your pretty dresses?"  
"Yes, pwease."  
"Which one? We have pink," I raised the dress to the little girl sitting on the bed, "Or blue, or green. Ooh, we have a sequinned purple dress. So many choices, which one, milady?"  
She squealed and giggled, pointing at the purple one. It took a good 10 minutes to get her changed, and her hair fixed. I wasn't the best at braiding but I did end up leaving it in a thick plait.

"Are you ready?"  
"Ready for what?" She raised her hands in a shrug and looked up at me, her big eyes were as green as forest vines.

"Jason and Piper have a special surprise for you?"  
"A surprise?" She grinned. "What is it?"  
I smiled and promised her that she'd see it. I took her tiny hand and together we walked out to see her surprise. I lifted her up onto one of the bar stools and she started to giggle again, pointing at the cupcakes. We sat down and ate them, with Piper wrapping a few up for us to take back to camp.

"Well, it's getting late, we better head home." We had our bags strapped to our backs, and Will held a sleeping Katie in his arms. Jason and Piper held open their door, trying to insist that we stay the night.  
"Are you sure we can't bribe you? You could just go early in the morning," Jason tried one more time.  
"No, it's okay. Besides, this one can't even wake up at a reasonable hour." Will nodded to me, chuckling.  
"Okay, that's enough. Don't go spilling all my secrets."

I turned into the centre of the cul-de-sac and focussed on calling Mrs O'Leary. She grew out of the shadowy night, her heavy breath giving her away. She was getting really old. Some of her fur had started to gray, and she hadn't been barking as much. We waved our last goodbyes to Jason and Piper as they headed back inside, and we disappeared into the shadows with the old hellhound.

Reappearing inside the camp's borders, we farewelled Mrs O'Leary as she shadow travelled somewhere else. It was really late, so we snuck around to the back of the infirmary where our home was. We didn't need to flick on the lights since the moon cast a glow through the large window. I dropped the bags onto the dining table; we'd deal with them later.

"Where do we put her? We don't have a bed for her."

"Hm," I moved some of our books and replaced them with blankets and pillows, making the daybed a temporary nightbed. Will put her down gently, brushing some loose strands of hair out of her eyes. Thank gods that we'd put her in her pjs at Jason and Pipes'. She was fast asleep, and should hopefully stay that way all night.

However, I started to get a pounding headache, and my sight started to dim. I could suddenly feel the floor on my cheek, before I lost consciousness.


	6. 5: Will

Katie was asleep, so I had one good thing going for me. On the other hand, Nico was unconscious on the floor, which was most definitely bad. I dropped to my knees, and curled my hands around him. Effortlessly, I picked him up. Backing into the door, I moved around the side of the building to the infirmary entry-way. It was unlocked, thank the gods. Putting Nico on a gurney, I started the usual routine for him. A small cup of ambrosia, a blanket, and lot of fluids. Once he was breathing normally, I sat down in the chair beside him. I checked the clock on the wall; 10:46pm. This was going to be a long night. I was filled with worry. Poor Nico. I wanted to know how what had happened, was it because adrenaline had worn off? Was it that he'd helped Mrs O'Leary shadow travel us back?  
"Mmph."  
He grunted as he moved his head closer to me, hair falling in his eyes. I brushed it back, not wanting it to wake him up. Oh, Nico. How many times had we been in this exact same place before? He was always trying to get himself killed. I leaned back in the chair, pulling my hoodie closer around me. I had barely closed my eyes when I remembered…  
Katelyn. I sat bolt upright and sprung from the chair, carefully stepping away from the creaky floorboards. Once I hit the outside air, I sprinted to the apartment. The door was still hanging open. I could see the faint silhouette of the toddler, huddled in blankets. She was still asleep. And after having that nap today, I had no idea how she did it.? Knowing that Nico would still be unconscious until at least tomorrow morning, I got changed into my pyjamas, brushed my teeth and hopped into bed. It was a relief knowing that Neeks was fine, but still, this was the only the third time that I'd been away from him when he was like that. I checked on Katie one last time before closing my eyes to sleep.

That night was one of my better nights, because I had no dreams.. Opening my eyes to sunlight, I winced. Did I forget to close the curtains last night? I turned over to see if Nico was awake before realising. He was in the infirmary. I turned out of habit, and saw a mop of black hair. That definitely didn't belong to Nico. It was Katie, and she had somehow managed to crawl into our bed last night. I ran my hair through my hair, pushing it back. Sitting upright I moved to leave the bed when she started to stir. Oh great, I just woke her up.

"Daddy? Papa?" She looked around, trying to search for Nico. When she couldn't find him, her eyes started to tear up, and she was blinking like she was about to start wailing. I had to intervene.

"Hey, it's all okay. I'm here. Good morning, sweetheart."

She scrambled over to me, clinging to my side.

"Where's Papa?" She looked up at me, pushing the tears and sleep from her eyes.

"He's next door. We'll go and check on him in a lil bit, alright?"

She nodded, and relief spread through me. At least I didn't have a screaming toddler to introduce to camp. I pushed off of the bed and went to the kitchenette, putting the kettle on to boil.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?"

"Yes, pwease."

I grabbed out a small cup for her and measured three scoops of the power into it, mixing it with the hot water and adding the milk. She drank it and had a little milk moustache.

"Come here, you little monkey." I grabbed around her waist and wiped her face.

Once she'd put on her outfit for the day - which consisted on some striped blue overalls and a purple shirt -we headed to see Nico. And yes, he was still unconscious.

We walked inside, and she headed straight to his gurney, clambering up the chair bedside it to lay right beside Nico.

"Uh, Katie. I don't think that's a good idea. Nico's still asleep so you have to be very quiet. Okay?" I raised my fingers to my lips to emphasise it, and she nodded, copying my movements. I grabbed a stethoscope and pressed the to Nico's chest, the normal thud of a heartbeat coming through. I could see that he was going to be awake soon, so I grabbed a pad and pen, writing a short note that consisted of: Going to have breakfast and show Katie around. Don't do anything stupid or dangerous. XX, Will.

We left the infirmary, heading towards the shore and the dining pavilion.

"My tummy's grumbly," Katie complained, pulling on my hand.

"Well that's good, because we're here." I pointed to the open ancient greek pavilion. The stone tables were as always, covered in their white tablecloths fringed with purple. The brazier that was only lit at night time was standing beside the faculty's table, which served as the breakfast buffet. At one of the centre tables, a lone group of teenagers had already started to have their breakfast. We moved to sit with the other Apollo cabiners, my half-siblings, and sat down, pulling Katie onto my lap.

"Hey guys, how're you?" I took my knife, carefully spreading butter and honey and cutting the toast into triangles I got a few mumbles in reply, I could tell that they were giving me the cold shoulder. I didn't know why, so I quickly brushed it off, instead focussing on Katie. I simply continued asking them about what they were going to do today, with responses of teaching archery and doing some trails on the pegasi. I nodded and kept eating Luckily, Katie wasn't too fussed and just ate some toast smothered with jam and peanut butter.

After we'd finished our breakfast, Katie and I slowly wandered back up to the infirmary to check on Nico. He was still asleep when we opened the door. Katie ran back up to him and jumped again from the chair to his gurney and snuggled in close to his arm.

"Papa, it's morning."

Her little speech ended with a giggle, to which Nico slowly opened his eyes.

He slowly looked around, processing where he was.

"Mmph," He inched up into a seated position and looked pointedly at me, "Why am I in the infirmary?"

"Because you passed out flat on the floor ."

"But I didn't even - oh..."

"What?"

"I just might have, sorta, possibly...helped Mrs O'Leary shadow travel us cross-country."

"Okay, sure. But I had to bring you to the infirmary, basic protocol." Katie just sat on Nico's lap, looking back and forth between us like it was a tennis match. I nodded, and signed a release form for Nico, bundling up the blanket and putting it back in the cupboard. We collectively left the infirmary but split outside; Nico heading to get changed, and Katie and I going down to the beach.

The water at the beach was nice and warm. Katie and I had omitted our shoes, and left them near the top of the pier. Instead, we walked along the edge of the water and Katie occasionally splashed in the little puddles. Neeks quickly joined us, and we just kinda walked behind Katie, listening to her little ramblings about the waves and the kooky-coloured buildings. She'd run back and forth and sometimes reached for our hands, where we'd picked her up as she'd jump over the water. It went on like that for about a half an hour, before Percy made his way back from breakfast and noticed us.

"Hey guys," he said slipping off his sneakers and catching up with us, "and who are you?"

Katie spun around, giggling and said, "I'm Katie."

"Well hiya, Katie." Percy turned to us a smile on his face as he told us that Annabeth was in the Athena cabin library, and she'd love to meet Katie. We agreed, leaving the beach and began heading to the Athena cabin.

Heading inside the open door, I was stunned at how clean-looking the cabin was. The light grey of the walls and calm, white curtains. We walked through to the library. Annabeth was sitting at one of the benches, working on some schematic drawings. She had her head close to the paper, pencil etching little notes and arrows all over the page. She looked up as she Percy put a hand on her shoulder, before smiling.

"Who's this little cutie?" She opened her arms, Katie almost running into them.  
"I'm Katie," she said, pointing to herself, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing some drawings. Do you draw Katie?" Katie nodded in reply as Annabeth grabbed some paper and coloured pencils out of a drawer, handing them to Katie. Katie sat down on the wooden floor, picking a bright pink pencil and starting to draw some blobs. She seemed happy drawing, so we just started talking in hushed tones since we were still in a library.

"So when did you guys get back?"  
"Last night. It was late and we just wanted to get Katelyn to bed," Nico said, leaving out his little episode.

"Okay, and what did you get up to yesterday?"  
"We went for ice cream and got Katie some outfits, and spent some time with Jason and Piper. They made some really good cupcakes."

"Yeah, Pipes and I used to make her special recipe each time we ha-"  
"Finished!" Katie waved the piece of paper in front of her, before giving it to Annabeth to look at.

"Wow! That's very, um, cool. And what did you draw for us?" Annabeth flipped the paper for us to see. It was our little family, as a yellow blob for me, a black blob for Nico and a little pink blob for Katie. Except that the blob for Nico was standing above mine, giving off a puppet master vibe. And that the Katie blob had a little blackish-brown blob in its hands.

"I don't know." Katelyn raised her hands and shrugged, looking at Nico and I. Nico glanced at me, before bending down to pick Katie up.

"I love it, we'll have to hang it up so you can see it everyday." He finished the sentence by kissing her on the forehead. I had to agree, it was a strange piece, but I did love it.


	7. 6: Nico

I didn't love the picture Katie had drawn. I dreaded it. Why did it look like I was controlling Will? Did she just know that, or did she find out somehow? How could she have? I hadn't told anyone. Nobody knew except…Ciardha. I tuned back into the conversation, which consisted of Percy and Katie talking about dolphins, and Will and Annabeth chatting about the designs that Annie had done. No one seemed to notice that I'd left the library, so I kept walking. It was what, 10:30 am? Nisha would be at archery class with Will's cabin, or at least, she should be. Making a beeline to the archery range, I only saw her cabin mate Lou Ellen, and the Aphrodite kids. I asked a few where she would be and the only responses were that she was in the woods looking for something. I understood immediately.

I stepped into a spot of darkness beneath a willow tree, and wrapped the shadow around me. Pushing the shadow away, I gasped, hands clutching my knees for stability. Lucky thing that Will wasn't here to tell me all the ways I could have died. But the question still remained; where was here, exactly? I'd emerged in a large heavy plated room, so huge that it had several stories. Why would someone want to be stuck in a dump like this? Shrapnel and stray pieces of metal littered the work benches and tables and the air inside was freezing cold. It looked like no one had been here in ages. The only glimmer of someone being here was the subtle tapping that echoed against a pipe. I followed the sound up a ladder to the second story, sneaking along a catwalk to where the sound was coming from. I found a small room, tucked away from view. It was dark and nearly empty; only some bedding, chest of drawers and some old mint packets remained. I could still hear the tapping though, and it was louder in this room than any other. Carefully, I flipped the light switch, and drew my sword. Nothing here looked dangerous, but you always had to be safe.

"What's tapping? Is that you, Nisha?"

From behind the bedframe, a disheveled mop of black hair popped up, dabbing at her eyes and cheeks.  
"What do you want?" She'd definitely been crying, her voice cracked.

"How about some answers?"  
"Huh? What for?"  
"Katie, she drew someth-"  
"Which Katie? Hephæstus cabin Katie or Iris cabin Katie?"  
"Neither, I'm talking about my Katie. She's 2 and a half, likes green and purple. She drew something strange."  
"Well, while this kid sounds great and all, and I'd probably love to meet her, kids draw strange stuff. It's just what they do."

"Yeah, well…" I was frustrated. She obviously wasn't getting the message, "Trust me, it's much weirder than you'd think."

"Fine. What kind of weird? Like drawing da Vinci helicopters, or like drawing some blobs?"  
"Blobs."  
"Beats me. It's your kid."

"Yes, but what she drew is something that only you and I are supposed to know."  
She been slowly getting to her feet and edging closer to the door at the back of the room. But as I spoke, she halted, gaping.  
"What? No, impossible. Nope. I don't believe you."

"You told someone?"  
"No. I didn't tell anyone. Besides, why would they believe me? I'm just a freak, searching for things. Leo. This bunker. Answers to all the questions I have. And when I did tell someone, they left." Her tears started flowing, making patterns in the dust on her face from being in here. I stepped towards her, just pulling her into a hug, not knowing what else to do. She was only twelve, and she'd gone through so much. Clearly it was all starting to get to her.

"Ok, well maybe we should head back to camp. It's got to be lunchtime now. I'm starving, I haven't had food since last night. Are you hungry?" She laughed lightly, stifling her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. "Come on, let's get out of here for now."

We took the long route out of the bunker, going through a secret door. I just followed Nisha, she seemed to know the way. She would just walk between the trees, occasionally stopping and turning to the right, before continuing. She seemed to be on constant alert, like a rabbit, eyes zig-zagging through the forest at the slightest sound or movement. She had just slowed down to change direction again when - Snap! I looked down at my foot and the stick that I'd just broken. She turned to look back at me, a death glare stark in her eyes.

"Sorry," I whispered trying to apologise. She picked up on a crunching sound, I could faintly hear it too. She cautiously drew her dagger, lowering herself slightly as she creeped towards the sound. I waited for her to move about six feet before I drew my sword and followed her from the back. Being small and lithe, Nisha hid behind the trees and shrubs easily. Me… not so much. Firstly, the black of my shirt and jacket stood out blatantly in the mid morning sun. plus the fact that I was tall and gangly and couldn't hide at all.

Crunch! Another heavy thud against the gravel and scattered leaves and twigs. It scraped along the ground, a bellow erupting from its jowls. I peeked out from behind a huge tree trunk, sword ready to defend myself. It was a huge greying and black mottled dog. Cumbersome and finding movement difficult, she whined, laying on her side on the ground.

It was Mrs O'Leary. She had started panting heavily. That was something I'd never seen her do. Ever. She was sore, and in pain. I could feel it.

"Come quick!" I yelled at Nisha. She was still hiding behind a berry bush. She instantly jumped up racing over. As soon as Mrs O'Leary whined again, Nisha skidded to a halt.

"That's not good. There's blood." Where had she seen blood? I looked at where her finger pointed. Yep. Mrs O'Leary had been bleeding, the ground starting to run with it.

"You," I pointed my sword at her, "You stay here. I'll go get help." I'd barely finished speaking when I started to run towards the camp. I couldn't think clearly, I had tunnel vision.

Run. Get Help.

I broke from the line of trees on the edge of the woods and sprinted to the Infirmary. There was no reasoning behind my choice, just a hunch. I hurled open the door, thankfully there were no patients inside. Just Will and Katie. Will was busily filling in some forms on a clipboard, and Katie was making a pillowfort out of some blankets and two neighbouring gurneys. She was the first of the two to notice me.

"Papa!" She waved, a blanket edge still clasped in the other hand.

"Do you know," I panted, clutching at the stitch in my ribs, "How to give a Hellhound a checkup?"  
"Random question." Will put his pen in his pocket, starting to stack the papers together.

"We don't have time for the long story."  
"Give me the short story then."  
"Mrs O'Leary in the woods. Bleeding."  
"And you just left her alone?" Will hastily starting grabbing medical supplies, throwing them into a first aid box.

"No. I left a 12 year-old there."

"You left a 12 year-old in charge of a tank-sized Hellhound?" His voice was thick with disbelief and annoyance. In hindsight, it was probably a dumb decision to leave a kid in charge, that was my fault.

I grabbed Katie, promising her that we'd finish her fort later, and started jogging back to where Mrs O'Leary was. Will followed behind us.

"Shhh. It's okay, girl. You're okay." Nisha was soothing the Hellhound, rubbing circles on her forehead. Mrs O'Leary still whined and panted. The blood was still all over the ground. Her voice was low and soft, trying to keep her from freaking out. It was a pretty smart move. Will bent down on Mrs O'Leary's side, stethoscope already in his ears, checking for clear sounds in her chest cavity. As soon as Will had started examining her, Nisha headed over to Katie and I.  
"Where have you been?" She crossed her arms, and her face was contorted into a scowl, "I've been talking to that dog for ages."  
"I was getting hel-"  
"I could've done that, and you could've stayed with the freaking dog!"  
She was right, but I couldn't do anything about that now. Instead, I focussed on petting Mrs O'Leary.  
"Did you seriously bring a little girl here?" Nisha wouldn't stop complaining. Did she not eat enough for breakfast this morning?  
"Yes. Well, er, no one was going to be able to watch her in the Infirmary." I shrugged, glancing at Katie. She was sitting under a tree, babbling and playing with some pine cones and sticks.

"That's just great." She was laying on the sarcasm thick, and kicked a stone in anger. "And what do you want me to do now?"

"You could look after Katie for a while, take her around the camp."  
"Sure." Nisha then mumbled, "Show her the camp. 'Cause that has a specific meaning." And with that she held Katie's hand and walked back to camp.

Now that they had left, Will walked over to me. He grimaced.  
"It's not looking bad, and it does clear up yesterday."  
"Yesterday? How?"  
"Mrs O'Leary is with puppy. In fact, she's in labour right now. And from the amount of blood, this would be her first litter. Presumably, of course. I'm a human doctor, not a mythological doctor."

"How does that clear up yesterday?"  
"Using the amount of energy that it took to shadow travel us from San Francisco to here would have been astounding. It also would've damaged the puppies. You subconsciously used some of your own power to get us here and keep Mrs O'Leary healthy."  
That made much more sense now.  
"So what do we do now?"  
"Simple. We help her deliver the puppies." Will started putting on some gloves. And I just prayed to the Gods that I wouldn't be scarred for life.

I showed her the camp. It wasn't that hard, and a two-year-old gets distracted very easily. She liked the strawberry fields the most, and ending up eating over a dozen. I had to practically pull her away when the Demeter kids gave us an irritated look.

I had no idea what to do with a kid. I'd barely been one, let alone had to look after one. Why did I put myself up to?

"I'm hungry," she complained. I looked around the camp. It looked pretty empty. That meant that it had to be lunchtime.

"Fine. Come with me." We walked in silence up to the dining pavilion. I grabbed a plate and nodded to her, "Am I supposed to grab you a plate too?"

She just shrugged, raising her hands up. Great, just great. I decided that I wasn't overly hungry, and walked over to my table, holding a hand behind my back so she could tell which person I was. I sat down opposite Lou Ellen, and had to hold in a laugh as the kid heaved herself up onto the seat.  
"Who's the toddler?" Lou Ellen looked up from her notebook, and took another bite of the burger she had in front of her.

"Will and Nico's." I took the top off the burger on my plate and started tearing it to pieces, "What was your name?"

She smiled and pointed at herself, "I'm Katie."

"She's Katie, apparently," I answered to Lou, giving Katie a piece of the bread topped with chicken and cheese to eat. She held it in both of her small hands, nibbling at the edges.

As soon as she'd finished eating, I could see her blinking a lot and yawning. She was no doubt tired. So we headed back to her dads' apartment. Opening the door, it was really bipolar. There was gold. There was black. The colours striped almost everything in the apartment.

"Do you usually have someone tell you a story or something before you have a nap?"

Katie shrugged, "Sing, please."

Ugh. This kid's pristine manners were getting on my nerves. I didn't know any nursery rhymes, partly because no one had ever sung them to me, and also because I'd never been a kid. I lifted her up onto her dads' bed, and pulled a chair up beside it. She turned on her side to face me, as I started to sing some of the songs I knew.


	8. 7: Will

I really didn't know much about Hellhounds, but I was pretty sure these puppies were huge. The first one I delivered was about the size of an over pumped basketball, and they just kept getting bigger. I guess Mrs O'Leary wasn't exactly a normal dog, but was this supposed to happen? Should they be that big? And how many was she going to have? I mean, her stomach looked huge. Was that normal?

Truth be told, I was winging this. I wasn't used to demonic canine patients. Heck, the only infant thing I'd delivered was Coach Hedge's son.

Soon I had a small gathering of mewling puppies splayed across my lap, which is considerably heavy when they are all heavier than my head. One gummed my knee, closed eyes staring up at me, and I was mildly worried when my entire leg disappeared. But I needed to focus. Mrs O'Leary needed my help. I stroked the sweat-slick skin of her belly, muttering encouraging words as she pushed out the next puppy. Cutting and tying its umbilical cord as it passed into my hands, I began to clean all the placenta and amniotic fluid off of it with the towel I had thankfully brought with me. Within seconds it was mewling at me too, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I placed it with its siblings. There were four so far; another two girls and a boy. They were bumping their heads together, and trying to crawl towards their mother. I had to keep moving them back so that they stayed out of her way. Another puppy was pushing its way through, this time tail first. I gently pulled it out, helping Mrs O'Leary, and then repeated the same process as before. Now the boys were catching up, making it a two vs three.

The stress must have been really getting to my head if I was making this into a competition. How many puppies were normally in a litter? Come on Will, think! I remembered that Grandpa and Grandma had a breeding pair of… Ugh, why couldn't I remember the name? They were big, and had heavy coats - German Shepherds. That's what they were. They used to have like 6 pups in a litter. Was that like what was going to be like for Mrs O'Leary? I shook my head. I needed to focus.

Mrs O'Leary pushed out another pup, another girl. Except she came out still in her amniotic sac, the translucent fluid tied like a balloon around her.

"Nico!" I pushed a pup off of me, and Nico did the same. He'd been rubbing a few of the pups and making sure they didn't stray too far from where we were. He looked up at me as I handed him the puppy who had tried chewing my leg. "Here! Hold him."

I headed closer to Mrs O'Leary, and set about carefully releasing the little pup from her sac. As I opened it, all the fetal urine and fluid rushed out onto the grass and dirt. The pup was cold, and unresponsive. But from what I'd learned watching 101 dalmatians as a child, I rubbed the puppy with a towel. She coughed up a bit of fluid before crying for her mum.  
I looked over to Mrs O'Leary, she was laying on her side, no longer panting and whining, tail moving weakly.

"Let the pups go to her." I called to Nico and set the little girl down and Nico stood up to release the rest of the pups. They all quickly found their mother, and began suckling almost immediately.

I left Mrs O'Leary to feed her puppies, knowing that they'd be quite safe where they were. I headed back to the camp with Nico. We had our arms around each other's waists, our pace slow and steady. We weren't in that big of a rush.  
"So… Are you okay?" I asked, nudging him with my hip.

"Pfft, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"  
"I don't know. You just kind of ran out of the library today."  
"Sorry, I just realised something. That's all."  
"Care to share what that was?" I was concerned with Nico. He'd seemed a little distant ever since we came back from the Underworld. But today, he was pushing me away even more.  
"Not really."  
I halted. I could only give him so much space. I crossed my arms as he turned to face me.

"You're kidding, right?"  
"What?" He opened his palms, a looked of pained guilt on his face.

"Neeks, talk to me."

"Will, its nothing, really it's not even worth mentioning."

"No. Nevermind. You do you, Nico. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'll be here." I started stalking back to the infirmary to put my first aid kit away.

"Will, stop."

I stopped, even though I didn't want to. My body immediately obeyed Nico's command, betraying me. I couldn't move anything, let alone wiggle my fingers. Nico looked at me, stunned that I had somehow followed his directions. "I just saw the drawing that Katie did and kinda freaked out. I've been a little stressed out lately, what with the attack and Katie and everything. I tried blaming Nisha, even though she had nothing to do with it. I just..."

I tried to talk back to him, but I couldn't even open my mouth, and my larynx stayed rigid. He continued, voice growing more desperate.

"I know that you have every right to be mad at me, but I feel terrible. And I know I should have talked to you about it. But I couldn't think and had to get away to process it all."

My teeth were glued shut and my tongue lay limp in my mouth. I wanted to apologise at my sudden outburst, but I couldn't.

"Please, say something." Somehow, those simple magic words unprised my teeth, and I started regaining feeling in my limbs again. I felt slightly light-headed and woozy. But I clenched my fists, focussing on my confusion and anger.  
"What. Did. You. Do?" I was so close to yelling and I wasn't sure if it was out of anger or fear.

Nico looked startled and hurt. What was wrong with him? How had he done that? What was that? He wasn't answering me, eyes scanning my face for some kind of explanation. I narrowed my eyes.

"Nico. You just controlled me."

"Well, I'm trying to compromise here, I wouldn't exactly call it controlling-"

"-No, Nico. When you told me to stop, I stopped. I couldn't move."

Fear sparked in his eyes, and I realised he must know something about what just happened.

"What? Nico what the hell?"

"Uh...I…"

"Nico!"

You know that look that animals get when they are pressed into a corner, and they can't escape? That was the expression mirrored on Nico's face as he fumbled for the right words.

"I don't...I don't…you couldn't move?"

"No! Only after when you told me to say something. Nico, how did you do that? Was it charmspeak or something?"

"Babe, Hades, remember?"

"Well, I don't know! Like some creepy Hades charmspeak? Nico you had full control over me. I couldn't move. At all. Nico what if that happens again? What if it happens by accident, and you forget to tell me I can move again? What even was that?"

His face crumbled, and I felt a twinge of worry. What was happening? Could Nico even explain what he just did? He was muttered under his breath, walking in small circles.

"He warned me, he said this might happen, I need to tell him, but what do I tell Will-"

"Who warned you?" I cut in, starting to panic. What had Nico done? "Neeks, talk to me. What's happening?"

His expression was one of dread, but also of finality.

"I'll be back," he promised, before disappearing in a swirl of shadows, leaving me alone and extremely worried.

I stroked Katie's hair gently as she recounted her adventures with Nisha while Nico and I were helping Mrs O'Leary. She told it like Nisha was the nicest person alive, but I was pretty sure that wasn't what actually happened. Nisha was a moody one. Suddenly, Katie halted her story, glancing left and right.

"Where's Papa?" Katie asked sweetly, eyes wide and upturned to meet mine, "Is he sleepy again?"

"He's just gone on a little trip," I told Katie, hoping feverishly what I told her was true, "He'll be back soon."

"Pwomise?"

She looked so innocent, so serious with her pinky held out to me. She pouted.

"You gotta pinky pwomise, or it's not true, Daddy," she brandished her finger, "Do you pwomise?"

I linked pinky fingers with her, promising that her Papa would come home to her. But inside, I was filled with dread. The way Nico had fled...I didn't know where he was.

Or...I hated to think it but...

I didn't know if he was coming back.

The conch shell sounded to signal dinner, so I walked and Katie skipped down to the dining pavilion. I wasn't mad at Nico, but I was worried, so I couldn't eat. I just grabbed a plate for Katie, because she was complaining about her stomach 'being grumbly'. We sat down again at the Apollo table.

"Hey, how was your day?" Sara pulled apart some of the lettuce on her plate as she asked Katie and I about our day. She didn't seemed bothered by us, probably because she was too busy with her life. So much drama, and she'd been looking after the two little boys who'd been here during the attack.

"It was alright, just did the usual." It was a lie, but I couldn't be stressed going into my day. Besides, Katie had finished her eating, so we headed back to our apartment.

"And the little mouse squeaked and scared the great, big elephant away. Little Jaq had saved Cinderella and her fair."  
Katie giggled from under the bundles of blankets she had covering her.

"I think it may be time for you to go to bed. Good night, sweet-pea."  
"When do you think Papa will come back?"  
"Hm," I tapped my chin, "I don't know."

And I really didn't.


	9. 8: Nico

"What do you mean you don't know? How could you not know?"

"This hasn't ever happened before. It could be due to many things… Tonnes of variables to be taken into account."  
"Well, is there any way that I can I stop it from happening?"  
"Hm." My father pushed past me, grabbing old scrolls from the walls at random and splaying them across the dining table. He delved into one of his suit pockets and pulled out his eyeglasses. I strode up beside him, trying to follow his line of sight.

"Aha!" He pointed at an old yellowed scroll, opening it out further. On it the words were smudged and faded, and I couldn't read them to save my life.

"And that means… what?"

"He who is't endues back the deceased, shall has't control o'er whom which he hath brought back and can only control at which hour they fully cullionly t."

"Cool. And that means…"  
"Since you helped in bringing Will back, you can control him, er, somewhat."

"So, like, Charmspeak. But only for Will?"

"Well, it's a much more potent, archaic and difficult-to-access ability when compared to the harmspeak, but yes." Okay. I could do this. In order to stop, all I had to do was try to not let it happen. Piece of cake.

"Thank you for that information, Father. I'll best be going."

"Nonsense. I've been a bit lonely down here, only Cerberus for company since Persephone's with her mother, and won't be back for a few months. Come, have a talk with me."

"But I really should get back to Will."

"Please. Stay, I have some important matters to discuss with you." Have you ever seen the cartoon version of Hercules? And how Hades is on fire and blue? Well, my Father did that thing where he goes red when he's angry. It's scared me since I was little, and I still flinch each time it happens. So of course I had to sit down and talk.

Hades pushed the papers and scrolls aside and put his glasses away. He clasped his hands together so that the tips of his fingers made a point.

"Now, you are aware about your time limit?"

"Time limit?" What was he talking about? Time limit for what?

"Bringing someone back, it has to have a repercussion. Otherwise the balance of the world is all eskew and that yada yada."

"So how does that have anything to do with me and Will? Didn't you say that Percy was brought back too?"

"The Fates already have a plan for them, son. His resurrection was brought on by forces that could very nearly match my own. That would be someone you wouldn't want to mess with."

"So back to this time limit. What's it for?"

"Balance of the universe. It's that old saying, 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth'. You bring someone back, you get a set amount of time to live. Then, Thanatos will come to collect the bringer-backerer. In this case, Nico, that person is you."

Woah. I shook my head. How did that seem fair? I thought about the spot I was stuck in. How long was my time? How would I tell Will? How would Katie react when I didn't come home one day?

"How long do I have, Father?"

"Well, the Fates have a plan for you too, as it would seem. You have 5 years." He slid a sandglass across the table. The sand was black, and a little bit had already fallen. The trickle, slow and steady. So slow, it barely looked like it was moving.

"Ok. I best be going now. Will might be getting worried about where I am."

"I'm afraid so." Hades pulled me into a hug, before releasing me and waving sadly as I shadow-travelled back to camp.

I pushed open the door to the apartment, woozy from the amount of shadow travelling I'd done in the past amount of days. Stepping over the threshold, I paused, waiting for someone to wake up or say hello. Instead, I only heard the soft and steady breathing of two people: Will and Katie. I creeped into the bathroom and changed into some pyjamas before hopping into bed with Will. He rolled over and pulled himself closer to me, an arm around my waist. My eyelids grew heavily as I slowly fell asleep. Unfortunately, I dreamed.

"Do you like my picture, Papa?" The picture sprung into my mind, the blobs being replaced by Will and I, Katie and one of Mrs O'Leary's pups. The picture me's hands held strings, strings that fell down and connected with Will's limbs and head. The picture form shouted gibberish, and Will moved to respond to it. Katie sat down, the puppy in her lap as she stroked its huge, floppy ears.

"You controlled him? Are you sure?" The picture blurred and rebuilt as Nisha. She had a book she was flipping through, and kept looking up at me as if to check. She looked at me skeptically. "Like, are you telling me the truth?"

"What do you mean? A time limit?" Nisha morphed into Will, his arms crossed. Katie hid behind his legs, and peeked out at me. I looked down, my hands clinging onto the sandglass. It was nearly empty, the last few grains of sand falling.

I awoke, the curtains light blaring through the window. Turning over, I squinted. A mop of golden hair was beside me, dozing peacefully. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I looked back at the window. A face full of freckles popped up, and started climbing onto the bed.  
"Papa! You're back!" Will stirred beside me, turning over and gazing at me and Katie.  
"Morning, sunshine."

"Good morning." I kissed his cheek, and Katie settled in between us. She was completely pink head to toe: her hair had pink ribbon in it, and she wore pink butterfly pyjamas, and pink flower socks. "Do we even have to do anything today?"  
"No, we don't."

"Then why don't we just lie in bed all day? And just sleep."

"And stories," Katie piped up.

"Thanks Katie. And stories. C'mon Will, let's be lazy."

"Yeah, but I wanted to catch up with Chiron about the counsellor's meeting we missed."  
"Ok," I pouted and Katie mimicked me, even crossing her little arms. We all got up, Will jumping in the shower as I helped Katie decide on today's outfit.  
"So, yesterday we had overalls. What are you thinking today? A bold playsuit, a twirly dress or some sturdy shorts?" She giggled at the options.

"Playsuit, pwease." So we dressed her in a blue and pink flamingo playsuit, complete with little sneakers and a ballerina bun. Will had just come out of the bathroom when we'd finished. "Daddy, whaddya think?"

Katie stepped around in a circle so that Will could see every side of her.

"Beautiful! C'est magnifique!" He blew her a kiss and smiled, as I hurried off to get changed. When I came out, they were deep in conversation.

"Nuh-uh! Pancakes!" Their foreheads were tapping each other.  
"What are you two weird things doing?" They looked up at me as I spoke.  
"We're making a bet. What will breakfast be? Katie says pancakes, and I say it'll be eggs and bacon. What do you think?"  
"Hm," I scrunched up my mouth, "how about some waffles? We've not had them for a while."

"Ok, so we have eggs and bacon, pancakes or waffles." We were all eager to get there and see what was for breakfast and who would win the bet with no prize. So we speedwalked down, earlier than everyone except the Apollo kids, as usual.

"Haha! I win!" We grabbed two plates and started stacking the waffles on top. Will scooped some ice cream on top of his plate, and we walked to my table. Will wasn't exactly keen to be around his siblings that much anymore.  
"Ok, I guess that you win," Will sulked as he cut into the waffles, chopping them into small pieces for Katie. We ate in silence for a while, each coming up with our fun things to do.  
"So what do we want to do today?"  
"Draw!"  
"Talk to Chiron." They weren't terrific options, so I started to think of any other fun things we could do.  
"So how about this?" I waited intently for them to nod that they were listening. "We go see Chiron, and then we could go to the stables; feed the pegasi and Danny might even see if you could sit on one of the foals, Katie. How about that?"

I received two nods, which mean that that was our new plan of attack for the day. And I might even have time later to find Ciardha and inform her about last night. Will hadn't asked about it again because of Katie, but I could see the question barely contained in his eyes.

We finished the stacks of waffles, ice cream, and maple syrup. We only had the occasional question from Katie about the pegasi; why we weren't sitting at the Apollo table; and why Percy, Annabeth, or Nisha weren't sitting with us. The last one was difficult to explain, as she couldn't wrap her head around having set tables for sibling and partner groups. Leaving the dining pavilion, we headed up to the Big House. On the wrap-around verandah, Chiron sat in his wheelchair across from Mr. D. Both had cards in their hands, and poker faces.

"Mr. D." Will spluttered, dropping Katie's right hand, "when did you get back?"

"Ah, if it isn't Noah Apeggio and Wren Sodor. I only got back as you were having breakfast, and I already miss my vacation."  
"Where did you go, Mr. D.?"

"I was on 'long service leave' and it was delightful, just five weeks of getting wild and roaming around with a bunch of maenads and lovely dryads on my arms."

"What can we do for you, Will?" Chiron interceded, lying his cards down so that Mr. D. couldn't peek.

"I wanted to ask what we missed when we were picking up Katie? At the councillor meeting? Can we step inside?"

Chiron nodded, wheeling his chair inside to the study as Will followed him. I stayed outside with Katie still clutching at my hand.  
"So what is that?" Mr. D. popped a can of Coca-Cola open and nodded at Katie, "She looks a little too young to be a camper."  
"I-I-I'm Katie," she ducked behind my legs, peeking out slightly, "And that's Papa."

Mr. D. raised an eyebrow at me questionly.

"I'm not one to judge, but aren't you a bit young to have a kid. She's what, three? And you and Warren are like 15? And where did this kid come from? I'm not trying to assume gender or whatever's between anyone's legs, but correct me if I'm mistaken. Aren't you two male?"

"Will and I adopted her."  
"Oh." He seemed sad, like he was expecting a more thrilling story, before sipping his drink and setting it on the table, "That's fine. But geez, first an attack on the camp, and now campers adopting children. I should have vacations more often. Or not."

Katie giggled, "You talk a lot." She then slowly stepped out from my legs, and peeked at Chiron's cards.  
"What's a bea-"  
"Ah, I see we've found Dionysus a new accomplice. May I have my cards back?" Chiron wheeled back onto the verandah, taking the cards from Katie. Mr. D. looked downfallen, mad that he hadn't found out about the cards.

"Well, we have a busy day today. We're off to the stables to show Katie the pegasi. Thank you for clearing it up with me, Chiron." We waved goodbye as we headed along a dirt trail towards the stables.


	10. 9: Will

"Hay!" I waved at Danny as we reached the round pens in front of the stables. Nico groaned at the pun, holding his head with his hand. Danny grinned as he waved back.

"How are Y'all?" His Texan accent matched his red flannel and boots perfectly.

"Good. We weren't overly busy today and we're hoping that Katie here could have a ride on one of your pegasi. That is if you aren't too busy," Nico stated as Katie waved at the Palomino on the lunging rope in the pen.

"No, Cam and Lilah are just taking a ride with some of the greener ones, but we still have some of our calmer gals in their stables. Did we want to head inside and see which one Katie takes a fancy to?"

We nodded, and Danny started to shorten the rope, leading the pegasus into a pasture before heading back towards us. He waved over his shoulder for us to follow him inside, and it took a moment for our eyes to adjust. The cobblestone floor was scattered with hay and straw, and four stables lined the far wall.

"Hey, can you grab out Chevalier for me?" Danny called to the back of the barn. Slowly, a mid-sized tan and cream mottled horse with creamy wings stepped out, a purple halter and lead head to its left.

"Pretty horsie!" Katie squealed as the pegasus was led outside into an open pen. We gave it some distance before heading out behind it. Danny took the lead from the black-haired girl as she headed to the pasture to lead another horse to the washing stalls. Danny lifted Katie onto the pegasus and held a hand against her back as they walked around the pen. I glanced beside me where Nico should have been, but he wasn't there. I looked around, trying to spot his dark clothing, before finding it over at the stalls with the girl. I headed over there, knowing that Danny would be able to entertain Katelyn for the meantime.

"No. I don't kno- no. I haven't. Please leave me alone, I'm trying to wash Chestnut." She turned her back to Nico and pulled on the lever to start the hose. Spraying it over the pegasus, she gently pushed him to the side so that she could wash his legs. Nico reached over her head and turned off the lever. The girl scoffed at him, before winding and hanging the hose up.

"I'm trying to tell you what my father told me. And I need you to know so that it doesn't happen."

The girl I recognised as Nisha, as she glared at Nico. She pushed him out of the stall before leading the pegasus outside again.

"What did your dad say, Nico?" I interceded, which startled both the demigods.

"Well, he, uh - he said that-"

"-Basically, he said that Doom and Gloom here has some type of death speak over only you."

I stepped back in shock. What had happened, it could become a recurring thing?

"Wait. Why do you know so much about this?"

"Gods. Can you two speak any louder?" Nisha glanced at the pegasus, before pulling at us to go around the back of the stall. "Nico thinks that I brought Percy back."

"You did so." Nico glared at her, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, it was freaky. Anyway, I've been worried that I'm going to do something wrong or slip up about the whole thing, so Nico and I have been liaising about it. But someone decided that maybe they should say it in the place filled with animals that a certain Poseidon-kid can talk to." She ended sarcastically, as realisation flooded Nico's expression.

"Crap. Sorry."

"Well," I said, grabbing their attention, "Whether you like it or not, I'm now a part of this."

"Great. Another person to deal with. Next, your kid will know and then the whole camp will." Nisha threw her hands up in the air and walked back around to the tied up the pegasus, "Now can I get back to washing Chestnut?"

We walked back over to Danny and Katelyn, who hadn't left the pegasus' back, and Katie was covered in light brown hair.

"Okay, this is the last lap. Y'all will most likely have to go soon." We nodded to Danny as he led Chevalier around the pen a final time, before lifting Katie down from his back. Nisha chose that time to walk back out of the barn with a bucket of grain for Chevalier, and Katie recognised her immediately.

"Nissa!" She yelled it so loudly that Nisha flinched, turning around to see the toddler.

"Munchkin," she regarded her as she walked through the gate into the pen, directing the pegasus' muzzle into the feed.

"What you doing?" Katie tilted her head to the side, confused.

"Definitely not making a teacup into a pancake." Was she alright? That sentence made no sense. Katie didn't care, she giggled at it. Nisha continued in the mad hatter-like lexicons, "Did the mouse bring its umbrella to the party?"

Katie giggled, turning to us, "I'm the mouse."

We nodded at her, slightly confused at how she could understand the gibberish.

"That was fun. What did you do?" We exchanged side glances as Katie asked the question.

"We talked to some of our friends." It was the best white lie I could come up with on the spot, but it fooled her because she started skipping up the hill back towards the camp.

"What we doing now?" She stopped skipping, turning around to us.

"The library. You wanted to draw remember?"

"Oh," she looked at her shoes, face screwed up in concentration. "Can Nissa come?"

"I don't think so, she looked really busy helping Danny."

"But I want her to come!" She stamped her foot on the grass. I looked at Nico, unsure of what to do. He shrugged, crouching down to her level.

"What would you like to do? Stay here, being cross and stamping, or would you like to climb aboard and we can go and ask Ciar- er, I mean Nisha." Katie's expression softened and she threw her hands around Nico's neck as he moved her into a piggy-back position.

"To Nissa!" She pointed back at the stables, and they started walking back to the stables.

I walked slowly behind them, extending the space between us. I perched against a pen and could hear them bargaining with Nisha to come. Either they were being really loud or the barn was very echoey.

"Come on, drawing!"  
"I'd love to munchkin, but I can't. I've got combing to do."

"Pwease."  
"Munchkin, I'm sorry. I can't."  
"But… You pwomised."  
"I did, didn't I?" There was a pause before all three of them exited, with Nisha calling to Danny that she'd be back later.

"You do know that you don't have to come back, right?" He replied to her, but she brushed it off, betting Katie that she could get the Athena cabin first.

Katie won the race because she kept calling for Nisha to wait for her. Heading inside, we found Percy in the process of building several different paper planes, his feet up on the table beside him. Annabeth still sat at her drafting table, pens pushed precariously into her ponytail and clipped to the pocket on her shirt.

"Hello!" Katie raced over to Percy, who started grinning as she clambered onto the chair beside him. He pulled out some more coloured paper and the felt-tips that he'd been using to decorate the wings. She eagerly took the pens and started drawing on the paper. Nisha walked over, picking Katie up and sitting her on her lap, asking her about what she was drawing.

I stood with Nico, chatting absentmindedly to Annabeth. Time seemed to slow down, like I was thinking faster than usual. I had only been reviewing these past few days. Adopting Katelyn; Mrs O'Leary and her litter; the drawing; Nico's selective death speak. It all felt connected, like a fine piece of thread connected it all. The drawing. I scrunched up my face trying to remember what was on it. Blobs that were Nico and I, a blob for Katelyn and a little brown blob. The death speak was on that page, in the way that the Nico blob hovered above mine. But the brown blob, I couldn't place it. It was too small to be Mrs O'Leary. Maybe one of her pups? But that was ridiculous, I hadn't seen any runts when we delivered them. Unless…

"Nico," I nudged his shoulder to grab his attention, "I know what it means."

"What? What's supposed to mean something?"  
"Don't worry then. I'll just tell you later." I walked over to where Nisha and Katie were finishing an origami swan, and Percy was trying to convince them to give it blue feathers.

"Pfft, no. Then it'll ruin the pink and purples. Won't it, munchkin?"  
Katie looked up at her and nodded, leaning back into Nisha. Percy pouted, and started drawing miniature dolphins and whales on a page.  
"What's that?" Katie pointed at the animals, a pen in her other hand ready to try and copy them.

"Sea creatures, they don't have noses." Percy leaned closer to her, before fake-grabbing her nose and showing it to her. He added, "Now you don't have a nose."

She looked at her 'nose' in his fist, eyes wide with shock. She reached out to take it from him, but he pulled his hand away before she could touch it.

"Nose, pwease." He gave it back, surprised by her manners. The conch shell sounded for lunch, and we all exited the library in a herd, disbanding when we got our lunch and went to our separate tables. This really must have been Nico's favourite day. First, waffles for breakfast and now he had burgers and fries for lunch. We loaded up the two plates for the three of us to share.

Burgers and fries eaten and plates licked clean, the three of us decided to go down to the beach. Luckily for us, some of Katie's favourite people were already by the water, reading a book and building a sandcastle. She ran over to Percy, accidentally filling in his castle moat with her shoes.  
"Aw, man! Now I have to redo it!" He exclaimed, causing Katie to falter and glance down.  
"Sorry."

"It's okay, how about you help me rebuild it, huh?" She nodded and sat down beside him, patting lumps of sand into the hole as Percy shaped them. We sat beside Annabeth, head buried deep in a book on architecture. She didn't even bother looking up at us when we sat down.

"So, we've got maybe six hours until dinner. What do you think we should do?" Nico asked me, taking his shoes off and burying his feet in the sand.

"Katie seems happy playing with Percy, we could just hang out here." I nodded and Nico did too. We sat and watched Katie for a while.

"Oh, merda!" Nico sat bolt upright, twisting the ring on his middle finger.

"What? What?"  
"Hazel doesn't know."

"Then IM her, she'll be excited."

He called out to Percy, "Hey, do you reckon you could make some seaspray. We might IM Hazel."  
"Yeah, no problem." Percy stood up and dusted the sand off his shorts. He then rubbed his hands together, causing a wave to clash against the sand. The wave sent seaspray everywhere. Nico dug out a drachma from his pocket and threw it into the spray and muttered the incantation. Hazel's face sprung to life in the mist, her nose screwed up tight in concentration. She was glancing around, not aware that we could see her.

"Psst! Hazel." Nico caught her attention and she immediately jumped backwards, shocked to see us. I could barely make out her features, she was somewhere dark, maybe a forest.

"Nico? Will?" She stepped hesitantly closer to us, lowering her sword.  
"Yeah, it's us. Percy and Annabeth are here too." They moved closer to us, Annabeth putting her book down for a second to wave.  
"Hello. It's been what… A month?"  
"Yeah, I'd say that," Percy scratched the back of his neck.  
"Anyway, Nico just thought that he should call you to let you know about Katie." I said, as I glanced over to Katie still patting the sandcastle into shape.

"Katie," Hazel tapped her chin, "Katie who?"  
She must have been overhearing her name, as Katie dusted off her playsuit and bounded over to us.  
"I'm Katie!" She threw her hands out in excitement. Hazel looked incredulously at her, still trying to pinpoint who she was. There was a brief moment of silence before Nico intervened.  
"She's your niece."  
Hazel softened and proceeded to gush over her for a minute before snapping back to attention.  
"I'd love to stay and chat but-" She was cut off by a guttural roar and a blue scaled creature cut the connection.

The conch shell sounded for dinner and we headed up, bith Nico and I lifting Katie as she jumped over stones on the path.  
"Where was Nissa?"  
"With the Pegasi most likely." She nodded at Nico's response and eagerly sat down at the table with us. It was brisket and roast vegetables that night. Katie ate almost half of my plate and drank at least three cups of juice.

We headed back to the apartment after skipping the singalong because Katie was tired. Changing into our pyjamas and brushing all our teeth, we tucked Katie in with a short story about a robot made of lions. Hopping into our own bed, Nico and I said goodnight as we turned to opposite sides. I could hear some faint scratching but couldn't be bothered to open my eyes. I shrugged it off as some sticks outside, instead quickly falling into unconsciousness. 

* * *

**Sorry for the late posting, I've just been in a bit of a slump. And I've been busily watching Voltron on Netflix *squee* it's AMAZING! Also I will be posting my final chapter for the story either today or tomorrow, so don't worry. Also, on the final chapter I may release some information about our next story. So get ready!  
** **Supersassysnakeatingbadger out x**


	11. 10: Nico

I couldn't sleep. Maybe I was still freaking out about all the stuff we'd done in the last few days. I kept waking up, and could hear this scratching coming from outside at first. But, I only heard that the first few times I woke up. The next ones were just because I could hear something creak or smash. After the sixth time I'd woken back up, I sat up, not caring anymore. My eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness and I could see something on the table. Something that definitely hadn't been there when we'd gone to bed. I got out of bed and tiptoed over to it, putting my hands out to feel what it was. It was soft, and small and had a rubbery piece covered in something sticky and sour-smelling. I pulled the rubber thing, and got growled at. I let go, hands flying back in response. There was a hellhound on our table. I grabbed it by it's waist and lugged it outside, where I would be able to see better.

The full moon shone on the hound so that I could see it better. It was one of Mrs O'Leary's pups, it had to be. It was grey and had several brown splotches across it's nose and ears. I dropped the pup outside, wrenched Will's sandal from its jowls and headed back inside. Hopefully, that would stop the noise and I would be able to go to sleep. How wrong I was. The hellpup scratched at the door, and when it saw how useless that was, she lay down against the door and started pining. I looked at the clock beside me. 4:27am. I rolled my eyes, and opened the door to let it back inside. She instantly jumped up onto the bed and nibbled at the duvet, pushing into it with her large paws.  
"No! Bad girl! Get down!" I hissed at her, forgetting that she couldn't understand me, and forgetting that she was a puppy. I picked her up off the bed, the top cover coming with as it was still in her jaws. Will stirred and I froze mid lift. He squinted and rolled towards me.

"Whah? Whah you doing?"

"Shh, everything's fine. Go back to sl-" The puppy mewled. Will rubbed his eyes and sat up, jaw hanging open.  
"Tha- Tha- Nico," He spoke slowly, "Why is there a dog in here? And why is it chewing on my covers?"

I didn't know how to respond. So I just held the puppy and shrugged. Will let out an exasperated sigh.  
"Nico, you need to get it out of here before Katelyn wakes up. As soon as she sees it, she'll think it's hers. We don't want her to get attached before we take it away. I'll stay here, and you see if Mrs O'Leary will take it back."

For the second time that morning, I headed back outside with a hellhound under my arm and still in my pyjamas. I carried the pup as she fidgeted and licked my arm and whimpered to be let free. Maintaining my grip, we delved deeper into the forest, only stopping once to recall which direction Mrs O'Leary had been.

Upon reaching the end of the treeline surrounding the empty plot, I could see the huge outline of the old Hellhound in the slowly crowning sunlight. I put the pup down and it stood still, unkeen to move closer. I pushed it forward slightly, hoping that would make it realise where its mother was. The hellpup did, bounding over towards her mother so fast that she tripped up several times. She mewled at her mother, trying to scurry under Mrs O'Leary's massive paws. I walked around the treeline, trying to spy whether or not the puppy was okay. It was tiny in comparison to her brothers and sisters, and was easily jostled by her siblings. Trying to nudge closer to suckle on her mother, the other pups pushed her away. She moved towards her mother's face, but Mrs O'Leary turned to look the other way.

It was heartbreaking to see such a small and helpless thing being shunned by its own parent. I watched as the pup dejectedly turned and sat heavily on its rear. I knew that Katelyn would no doubt be up right now, but I also knew that this little puppy wouldn't survive on its own. My shoulders dropped and I sighed, knowing that I only had once choice. I hung my head and strolled forward towards Mrs O'Leary. She looked at me, slightly baring her teeth and growling. I ignored her, she would settle down in a couple days. Crouching down, I picked the little hellpup from around its waist. Turning on my heel, I headed back to the treeline as the pup squirmed and rolled upside down in my arms.

I looked down at the hellpup as we walked; it wasn't an overly beautiful thing. It was barely the size of a soccer ball. It was the smallest of its litter by far. The pup had dark skin like her mother's but aside from the bone structure, that's where the similarities stopped. It had the protruding ribcage of a normal bullmastiff, but had a slightly mottled underbelly. The colouring of it was similar to the colour of decomposing and rotten leaves on a rainforest floor. She had a short stubby tail that barely measured 3 inches. And her face. The poor pup's nose was the same mottled brown-grey colour of her underbelly, but her face was splotched with a ménage of light and dark browns blotched across her face and ears. She looked like someone had been using her face as a chocolate painting palette. Only did I look away from the hellpup wriggling in my arms when I nearly tripped over a tree root. I blinked and looked out in front of me, the trees less concentrated. We were nearly home.

When we got to the apartment, I squinted. The pup had clawed away some of the paint from the door. Tucking the pup under my arm again, I twisted the doorknob and stepped over the threshold. Inside, Katelyn and Will had propped several blankets and pillows upright using chairs. They'd built a pillow fort. Closing the door, the pup squirmed and wriggled in my arms once more, her nose twitching like she'd picked up a scent she liked. She wrestled free of my hellpup dropped onto the hardwood floor, making a considerable thud as she hit the ground. Instinctively, I rushed to pick the pup back up before she gave away her existence. Her nose disappeared under a blanket and the rest of her body quickly followed suit.

"Puppy!" I could hear the shrill cry of excitement from Katelyn, and watched as the pillow fort quickly collapsed from the puppy's sporadically wagging tail.

"Nico…" Will pushed a blanket off of himself and looked at me, face strained in annoyance.

"It's the runt," I explained, and Will guiltily looked down, a grimace on his face, "besides, it would've died otherwise."

Will nodded before looking at Katie, who was sitting cross-legged and had both arms wrapped around the pup. The hellpup itself was licking at Katie's cheeks and softly barking.

"Can we keep her?" Katie looked up at us, her eyes big and round.

"Er…" Will and I exchanged glances. It would be cool to have a pet, but there was no way we could keep it here. When it starts growing – and it will – it'll get as big as Mrs O'Leary. If not, bigger. These thoughts raced through my mind along with various other pros and cons.

"Uh," Will paused and looked back at Katelyn, "Well, sweetheart, we'll have to see. Because she'll grow, um, really big."

Will didn't want her to have it, he was trying to let her down easily. I could see Katie's eyes well slightly with tears, and she adjusted her grip on the hellpup.

"Pwease," Katie's eyes pleaded as she hugged the hellpuppy tighter. The pup just started nuzzling into Katie's pink pyjama shirt and sneezed.

"I suppose we could keep her," I crouched down beside Katie and ruffled her hair, "So long as she doesn't go chewing my shoes. How about that, Katie?"

I could see his expression was riddled with anxiety, wrinkles lined his forehead, and he kept glancing between Katie and I. After a couple seconds, he began to speak.

"Have we even thought this through? The size of the thing, and we don't know what to feed it, and what would we even do with it?"

"We can sort that out later," I responded to which Will gave an exasperated sigh before giving in.

"Oh, alright. But what are you going to name it?"

"I don't know," Katie said as she let go of the hellpup to raise her hands, "What do you think, Papa?"

"You could try Cucciolo." I looked at her clearly confused face, "It means puppy."

"But I can't say it."

"How about Bonnie?"

"Bonnie, Bonnie." Katie called to the pup who was busily sniffing the apartment and most importantly, the kitchen. The hellpup ignored Katie, sniffing the doorjamb of the fridge.

"How about Pepper? She looks like she could be a Pepper."

"She's not a Pepper, she's more a Nala than a Pepper. Pepper wouldn't have all those smudges across her face and belly," Will interceded.

"Smudge!" Katie called, and the puppy came bounding over, tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. Katie scooped her up and started running her fingers across the dog's belly as Smudge started yapping contentedly.

"Huh. Smudge it is." Will stood up, picking up the blanket and folding it up. I looked at Katie and Smudge on the ground before going into the dresser to grab some clothes to change into. I left them on the table and waited for Will to get out of his shower.  
"Hey, Katie, feel like getting ready for the day?"  
"No! I wanna stay with Smudge." Her outburst left me aghast, so I turned back to the chest of drawers against the wall. I dug through picking out an outfit of blue shorts, a butterfly shirt and matching socks. I held it up for her to see.  
"Do you want to wear this?"  
"No! I wanna stay with Smudge." She pulled her arms tighter around the hellpup.  
"How about a compromise?"  
"What's an com-promise?"  
"You do something for me and I do something for you. If you get dressed, we'll take Smudge with us to see your friends." She nodded and slowly let go of Smudge, who jumped down onto the floor and ran into the kitchen.

After Katelyn was dressed, Will came out of the bathroom hair damp from the shower. I quickly ducked into the bathroom to change out of my pyjamas.  
"Hey, do you want breakfast?"  
"I thought that'd be finished by now," I called from the bathroom.

"I just saw Percy head over and…" Will paused, "It's only 6:50."

I opened the door, blinking at the alarm clock. Yep, the neon green LED said 6:50.

"Shall we head to breakfast?"

"Yeah," Will replied as he took Katie by the hand and led her outside. I followed behind, closing the door before Smudge could escape.

After having eggs and bacon for breakfast, we headed down to the shore. But not before grabbing Smudge from the apartment since I'd promised Katelyn. Taking off our shoes, Katie and Smudge ran into the water, the waves splashing at the hems of her shorts. Annabeth and Percy were sitting on the shore again, reading a book and covering his feet in sand. We sat down beside them, keeping a close eye on Katie and her new pet.

"What's that?" Percy pointed at the hellpup.

"Smudge," Will replied which caused Percy's expression to become more dumbfounded than before.

"Mrs O'Leary had pups and that one was the runt who decided to follow us home." Percy nodded at my response. After a little while, Percy and Annabeth left to return her book and find a new one. So Will and I just sat and looked out at the water and Katie and Smudge.

"It's getting hot out, sweetie, maybe we should go inside," Will called to Katie, catching her unaware. A larger wave came up behind her and knocked her over, causing her to sob uncontrollably. I jumped up and rushed into the waves, picking her up and grabbing her out of the water.

"Oh, honey, it's okay. Don't cry." I tried cooing her and bundled her up in my hoodie, the heavyweight cotton swelling with the ocean water, "What can we do to make it better?"

"Peggies. The peggies, papa." She coughed between words and shivered. Smudge was nuzzling at her hair and licking the salty tears and water from her face.

"Okay, honey. Let's go see the pegassi then." I stood up, lifting her with me and we trudged silently to the stables. The short walk in the sun quickly dried Katie's clothes, leaving only her hair damp and matted.

"Nissa!"

"Ark!" Katie and Smudge squealed and barked at seeing the daughter of Hecate. They raced towards her and Katie barrelled into her legs, threatening to knock the bucket of feed out of her hands.

"Munchkin… And dog?"

"She's Smudge!"

"Right," she said slowly, "Okay."

"What are you doing?"

"Feeding Nutmeg."

"Can we help?" Katie looked up at Nisha, eyes pleading to join in.

"Fine, Danny!" She called out towards the stables, where the head of the cryptoequestrian popped out from behind the barn door, "Tag team. Munchkin wants to feed and groom Nutmeg."

"Sure, you do realise that you don't have to be here though. You should be doing arts with your cabin or something." We watched as she ignored him, handing over the bucket and the brush in her hand. "You have to clean Elijah's hooves."

She briskly walked into the stables, our attention refocusing on Danny lifting Katie onto Nutmeg. He showed her how to hold the brush and how to comb it through the pegasus's hair. Will smiled at the scene, and I mimicked him. Except I turned towards the stables, there was something I had to do.

"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday. It's like a demon deal, isn't it?"

"You could say that, yeah."

"Time limit, what is it?"

"Uh…" I didn't exactly want to tell her, to which her eyes widened.

"You don't know?!"

"No, I know. It's, uh, 5 years." I looked down, mind thinking about the black hourglass hidden in the back of my bookshelf."

"You have to tell her."

"Tell Katelyn? No," I stood firm in my words, rising to meet the boldness of her words. I knew deep down that I would have to tell her, just not yet. "She wouldn't understand."

"Help her understand, you owe it to her."

"She's too young."

"You have to tell her," she repeated, words sharper.

"When the time is ri-"

"-There's never a right time. Just like death. There's never a right time for it. But it still comes."

How was a twelve year old able to come up with so much wisdom? She'd probably been hanging out with Annabeth. She looked back at the pegasus she was brushing to hide the tears welling in her eyes.

"Leo's not dead. I know that much, but you would know that too." I tried to change the subject, to something I was still curious about. Other than the physician's cure, Thanatos and my father, I'd never seen anyone else resurrect someone. And she was so young, that much power... Well, it could corrupt her. Like it'd nearly done with me.

"I don't know anything. Why do you think I'm trying to find him?" She hissed, dropping the brush onto the railing with a clatter.

"He'll come back. He's done this before."

"But this isn't before. He didn't die this time. He just doesn't want to be around me anymore."

I huffed, knowing more than to try and say otherwise. I could familiarise with her, but she'd ignore it. So I left her to picking and grooming the pegasus, and headed back outside to be with my family.

I woke up and stretched, faintly oblivious to what was happening. That was until I rubbed the sleep from my eyes to see Will donning his jacket and stethoscope, tucking a last square of ambrosia into his medical bag. He quickly looked up and at the window, and I followed his gaze. Katelyn was still fast asleep, arm hooked around Smudge and her body curled around the little hellpup.

"What's wrong?" Will flinched at my voice, anguish on his face.

"Nothing too serious… I hope. Just that Lou found someone out on her morning forest hike." Fear bubbled within me, who did I know that was constantly in the woods?

"Who?"

My fears had been answered as Will uttered the name.

* * *

 **Okay, don't judge me. I know that it's been well over a couple days, but I just couldn't figure out how to write this chapter. But (without spilling the tea) at least I actually finished! And I did promise a little bit about the next story in 'A New Uprising' saga. It will be set a little while (a fortnight, or two weeks for you Americans) after this story, and will centre primarily about our favourite OTP and power couple, Percabeth. It will feature characters from this story and the original, so make sure to go back and reread every single story so you remember it all! And make sure to check out A New Uprising: The Day Chase Became Jackson!**

 **Poll which I will answer in the begging chapter/disclaimer of the next story: Who was unconscious? Points for correct or creative answers!**


End file.
